


Drowned

by moodiful819



Category: Free!, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Kaiju, Ocean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3368606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodiful819/pseuds/moodiful819
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto had always been right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowned

The ocean was terrifying.

For years, Makoto had believed that to his very core. Life-giving, life-sustaining as it was for billions of people, it was also a guardian. The secrets it held—and it held many—were buried deep below its surface in the dark, trapped by the inescapable pressure of night and depth.

When they had been swept away in the storm during their training camp, he had finally learned to let that fear go. What was once a secret was now a possibility; the tides of the ocean would carry them to the shores of their dreams.

But that was before “K-Day.” Before the tsunami swept across their shores, chasing on the heels of earthquakes. Before the waters split, frothing and boiling as concrete tumbled into its gaping maw. What was supposed to be their first year of college ended with a death toll of at least two million and Tokyo decimated, flattened and poisoned by the monster still oozing its filth into the sea.

Pushing aside Rei’s concerned hand, Nagisa limped slowly out of the shelter entrance, their home for the past six days. Buried underground, it was a miracle the ocean had not drowned them all, and he slowly picked his foot over the splintered fragments of wood and bits of broken glass. He had hoped to be one of the first people out once the officers had released the safety alarm, but his injury and Rei’s caution had slowed him down.

Not that it would have made a difference. Deep down, he already knew who would have been the first one out.

Staring across the gulf of steel and asphalt, the blonde focused his gaze on the dark-haired figure poised on the beach. His hair was tangled and oily from the days in the bunker, but he’d know that head anywhere.

However, Nagisa was much more concerned about what was going on in that head rather than on top of it. Mako-chan had gotten accepted to a university in Tokyo earlier that year, but even before the reports came, they had all felt it. A light snuffed out inside their chests.

Behind him, Nagisa could hear Rei as he carefully stepped his way towards him through the wreckage.

"Should we call him in?" Rin asked, suddenly beside him. But Nagisa wasn’t surprised. Rin had always slipped in and out of their lives like a ghost. Now it was Makoto’s turn.

"No," came the response. "He’ll come in when he’s ready." But despite the two of them maturing since their swimming days, neither knew what Nagisa meant by "ready." Not since the attack. Not when it was clear they weren’t really ready for anything at all.

In the back of his head, Nagisa found himself once again at the rest house in the middle of the night, the story of Makoto’s fear still ringing clear in his ear. He’d told them that he was afraid of what lurked beneath the waves, beneath that calm, gentle surface. He’d thought he was wrong. They all had…

But he’d been right. He’d been right all along.

Across the wreckage, Nagisa watched as Haru continued to stare out at the ocean. The area by Haru’s feet was clear; it seemed as if he was standing on the one piece of beach untouched by the destruction.

Shifting his feet in the sand, the blue-eyed boy wiggled his toes in his shoes and imagined the grains between them, watching the tide ebbed and flowed as gently as it ever did. It was a tide he’d watched all his life. He knew how it moved, how it breathed. He knew it better than a lover, better than he knew himself…

_Or at least, he thought he did._

Turning his head, he trained his gaze out towards the horizon where the monster had sprung. What the newscaster had called “The Breach.” The one secret the water left hidden away from him deep inside.

His throat suddenly tightened, like a light being snuffed out in his chest. He swallowed the grimace and the oxygen in one gulp.

Quickly, Haru spun on his heel and started heading back from the shore, desperately ignoring the sounds of crashing waves, feeling betrayed.


End file.
